Rate My Professor Ann Nicholson

Professor Ann Nicholson is a leading computer scientist and Professor in the Faculty of Information Technology at Monash University. She obtained her Bachelor of Science with Honours in Computer Science from the University of Melbourne in 1987, Master of Science in Computer Science from the University of Melbourne in 1990, and Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering Science from the University of Oxford in 1993, awarded as a Rhodes Scholar in 1988. Following postdoctoral research at Brown University, she joined Monash University in 1994 as a lecturer and progressed through senior academic and leadership positions. These include Course Director of the Bachelor of Software Engineering from 2011 to 2013, Associate Dean (Education) from 2014 to 2016, Acting Deputy Dean from 2016 to 2017, Deputy Dean (Research) from 2018 to 2020, and Dean of the Faculty of Information Technology from 2020 to 2025. She stepped down as Dean in December 2025 and will retire in December 2026. Throughout her career, she has chaired the Faculty Education Committee and served as Honorary Secretary of the Victorian Rhodes Scholarship Selection Committee from 2019 to 2025. She has extensive teaching experience as Chief Examiner and lecturer for units such as FIT1010 Introduction to Software Engineering and FIT1049 IT Professional Practice.

Professor Nicholson's research focuses on artificial intelligence, particularly Bayesian networks as the dominant technology for probabilistic causal modelling and decision support under uncertainty. Her interests encompass dynamic Bayesian networks, planning under uncertainty, Bayesian inference, knowledge engineering, and applications in medicine, epidemiology, environmental science, biosecurity, and meteorology. She has published over 120 peer-reviewed papers and co-authored the seminal textbook Bayesian Artificial Intelligence (second edition, 2010, with Kevin B. Korb), which has received nearly 3000 citations. Other highly cited works include Parameterisation and evaluation of a Bayesian network for use in an ecological risk assessment (2007, 603 citations), Dynamic Time Warping averaging of time series allows faster and more accurate classification (2014, 360 citations), and Modeling COVID-19 disease processes by remote elicitation of causal Bayesian networks from medical experts (2023). She has secured more than $12 million in research funding, founded two start-up companies, and demonstrated significant impact with over 7000 citations across her publications. Her honors include the Rhodes Scholarship (1988), Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences & Engineering (2022), and the IEEE International Conference on Data Mining 10-year Highest Impact Award (2023, shared with Geoff Webb).